Electronic Systems Center & The MITRE Corporation
High reliability command and control systems have very stringent test and integration elements. For example, fully testing a radar system involves the efforts of many groups, including pilots, to fly aircraft past the radars. Should any element encounter difficulties during testing, then all groups must be involved in a repeat of the tests. This is why, depending on the application, we have estimated that the total (find, change, test, and field) costs may range from $1.02 to $8.52 per executable line of code in the entire application, not just the date-related code, with the cost range dependent on the type of
application.
Many applications run in remote, unstaffed locations. Just physically accessing the systems in which these applications reside will be a major effort in its own right.
More systems are implemented in highly specialized embedded computers. Significant extra care and effort are required to properly update such systems.
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The Y2K problem is very widespread: It affects hardware (BIOS, real-time clocks), embedded firmware, languages and compilers, operating systems, random number generators and security services, database-management systems, transaction-processing systems, EDI and banking systems, spreadsheets, PBXs, phone systems, and more. Y2K is not simply an IS problem: Although the majority of Y2K problems are located in information systems, the sad truth is that any system anywhere that uses dates may be threatened.
In addition, we've all been striving to maximize the use of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) platforms, operating systems, and applications in all of our new or updated systems. However, the effects of doing this may turn out to be another source of disruption that needs to be managed when it comes to the Year 2000 problem.
The interdependencies of organizations using C4I systems through rapid data exchanges and multiple interfaces will certainly lead to scheduling, testing, and coordination problems.
It is naive to assume that new applications and systems are immune to Y2K. It was only late last year that a new version of Quicken, a popular personal finance package, was released that could handle dates beyond 1999. At the January Federal Interagency Y2K meeting, it was reported that the National Institutes of Health received a shipment of brand-new PCs containing three different versions of BIOS, two of which failed to correctly handle the century transition.
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Electronic Systems Center & The MITRE Corporation
Year 2000 Site
mitre.org |
